


The Place I Fit In

by theforgottenpromises



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-27 15:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5054062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theforgottenpromises/pseuds/theforgottenpromises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They thought after helping their son find a place to fit in, things would be okay. Until one day, the principal calls. Sometimes, a bump in the road makes things fall apart. But sometimes it makes pieces fall into place instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sporkmetender](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sporkmetender/gifts).



> My entry for the OUaT Femslash Exchange, a gift to sporkmetender
> 
> Although I may have slightly disregarded most of the assignment, as i decided to switch plots last minute. I still hope it turned out okay! 
> 
> There is no particular point in time this takes place. All you need to know is Henry is in high school and neither Hook nor Hood are mentioned. I don't know what happened or where they went and I couldn't bring myself to care. Feel free to fill in the blancs on any of that for yourself. 
> 
> Any and all reviews are greatly appreciated!

She heard him before he even got to the front door. His angry footsteps echoed through the hallway as he stomped up the staircase to her apartment. The door opened and she could hear Henry’s frustrated grunt as he got in. A moment later the sound of a backpack sliding across the hallway could be heard. It slid into view a moment later and came to a stop against the back of the couch with a soft thud. He knew better than to swing his backpack around like that. The door closed loudly and a moment later his bedroom door was slammed shut as well. He also knew better than to slam the doors.  
  
Emma folded up the paper she had been reading, counted to three and then called out.  
  
“Henry?!”  
  
“No!” Came the irritable response of her teenage son.  
  
She sighed and then called again. When did he become such a moody boy? Such a teenager? Where did that cheery, talkative ten-year-old go? She regretted the times she wondered what traits he had gotten from her. Because right now, she could very clearly recognize a part of herself in him and in hindsight, it may not have been something to wish for after all.  
  
His bedroom door opened and Henry appeared in the doorway of the living room across the hall from his own room.   
  
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I know I’m not supposed to throw my backpack around. I’m sorry.” He bent down and picked his bag up off the floor, swung it over his shoulder and tried to make is way back out of the room.  
  
“Henry.” Emma warned him. Dared him. “Sit please.”  
  
She had seen him grow moodier and moodier since school started again. At first she thought it may just be the fact that he was hitting puberty pretty hard nowadays, but somehow she sensed that that wasn’t all that was going on. A few weeks into the new school year she started recognizing a pattern in his mood swings. His bad moods peaked in the mornings and afternoons, when he had to go and came back from school. It didn’t take long to put two and two together.  
  
Henry’s shoulders sagged as he sighed, dropped his bag, turned around walked around the couch and plopped down. Emma followed him carefully with her eyes before she scooted her own seat back and stood to join him on the couch. She was just making her way over when a soft knock on the door made her change course into the hallway.  
  
“O great,” Henry mumbled as Emma went to let the visitor in. He was usually very pleased to spend time with both his mothers, who were growing closer and closer together, but he really wasn’t in the mood for talking. Let alone to both his moms at the same time. They were really starting to get good at forming one front and sometimes that really sucked. Like now. They asked about school so often, it was exhausting.   
  
“Hey, you made it!”  
  
“Of course, I made it. why wouldn’t I?”  
  
Regina stepped inside, shrugging off her blazer and revealing the white blouse she had on underneath. Emma noticed how it was unbuttoned to a point where it was only just acceptable. Businesslike with an edge to it. She followed the buttons down to where they disappeared into a pencil skirt the shirt was neatly tucked into. A skirt so tight it must’ve been made especially for her.   
  
When the brunette turned around to hang her blazer on the coat rack, Emma should’ve turned away. She really should’ve, but her eyes weren’t cooperating and so she practically stared until Regina turned around. At least she had the good sense to snap her eyes back up before Regina noticed. What was she doing? This was Regina. Her best friend. This couldn’t happen. This was her son’s other mother. Speaking of Henry, she should get her mind back to the present and the talk she was about to have with him.  
  
Two pairs of footsteps made their way back to the living room. One pair of socked feet, one pair of heels.   
  
“Henry was just about to tell me what’s been going on with him lately,” Emma said, clapping him on the shoulder as she sank down on the couch next to him, Regina taking the chair on his left. “And why he’s been so moody.”   
  
“No I wasn’t,” Henry stubbornly denied.  
  
This was so very unlike Henry. Regina had watched the smile on his face fade away too. Their boy, who always wore his heart on his sleeve, had been keeping things in for too long. Regina exchanged a look with Emma and then she leaned down to put a hand on Henry’s knee.  
  
“Henry, dear,” she began softly. “What’s wrong? You have been coming home from school with that frown on your face for weeks now. What happened? You used to love learning new things.”  
  
Henry kept his eyes firmly on the hand he was using to trace patterns on the armrest as he replied, “I still do.”  
  
Regina didn’t say anything. She just scooted out of her seat a little more and took his chin in her hand, bringing his gaze up to meet hers. It still amazed Emma how much the woman could communicate without actually uttering a single word.   
  
A moment passed as mother and son just looked at each other and then Henry caved.  
  
“They laugh at me,” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up.   
  
This was news to both his mothers. He’d had trouble making friends a few years ago, sure. It was the whole reason Mary Margaret had given him his book. Neither Emma nor Regina could remember many times Henry had had friend over. Other than Grace and Nicolas, he didn’t really ever mention anyone either.  
  
How could she not have noticed before, Emma wondered. Had she really been that blind? Between the curse and Neverland and all other threats they’d had to deal with, something as ordinary as school had never really been high on her list of worries. Henry had always done fine keeping his grades up and with his new found ever expanding family, she never noticed how little friends he had. None of them had, had they? Was it just her? Watching the boy sitting here next to her, she was mentally kicking herself for not paying more attention. These thoughts weren’t helping. This wasn’t the time to start calling herself out on being a bad mother. There was never a good time for that. Besides, she already knew she wasn’t as good of a mother as she wanted herself to be.  
  
Shake it off, Swan, she told herself sternly. Focus on the here and now.   
  
“What do you mean, they laugh at you?” She asks calmly.  
  
“I don’t know,” Henry shrugs. “They all have so much history together, and I don’t. They all know each other from the Enchanted forest and stuff. And then there’s me. I don’t get half the jokes they make.”  
  
“I thought things were going well a while ago,” Regina admitted confused. And if Emma was being frank, so did she.  
  
“They were, I was totally cool when I got back from Neverland. And being the Savior’s son definitely helps.” Regina tried, she really did. She tried to hide the flinch when Henry referred to himself solely as the Savior’s son, completely ignoring her role in his life but Emma caught it before she could school her features. She received a small smile before the emerald eyes turned to their son again. “But that wore off and now I’m mostly just the loser who doesn’t get half their inside jokes and who sucks at P.E.”  
  
“Henry,” Regina started taking one of Henry’s hands in both of hers, but Henry just shook his head.  
  
“Don’t mom,” he interrupted. “Don’t tell me it’s okay or that it’s not that bad. You don’t understand. You never have. You don’t know what high school is like. You’ve never been a kid in this world. Just leave it. It doesn’t matter.”   
  
Regina physically reared back a little as his words hit her hard. Her hands fell limply into her lap when he extracted his hand from them. He got up and they both watched him go. Regina was still staring at the doorway he disappeared out of, stunned by the harsh tone in his ever deepening voice.   
  
“He didn’t mean that.” Emma’s voice and the proximity of it startled her. The blonde was now sitting closer, where Henry had been just a moment before.   
  
“He’s right. I don’t know what he’s going through.”  
  
“Really?” Emma countered. “So you don’t know what it feels like to be misunderstood? To be disliked by everyone? To have basically no friends and to feel like you absolutely don’t fit in? You may not have gone to any high school, but he’s wrong in assuming you don’t understand.”   
  
Emma was right. At some level, she could relate better than most but it was scary to have someone else say it. She had begun trusting Emma with bits and pieces of her past. The blonde had heard plenty of stories from others too of course. All that combined with Emma’s own experience gave her a pretty good idea of the hardship Regina had gone through. Still, knowing all this, it felt strange to hear Emma say it. Like she still couldn’t believe the blonde actually knew all this. That she had allowed anyone to get this close was still a shock to her. Somehow it had gradually happened, and she had allowed it. If she was being completely, painfully honest with herself, she even liked it. Wait, when had that happened? She blinked a few times, averting her eyes. She smoothed the palms of her hands over her thighs and then she rose to her feet, effectively breaking the moment between them.  
  
“Let’s start dinner, shall we? Perhaps if we give him an hour to collect his thoughts, we can breach the subject again after we ate.”  
  
Having dinner was something new they did. At first it would always take place at the mansion, since the table would be a little too crowded in the Charming loft. They all got along fine, but having weekly dinners was still a bit much to ask. Now however, now that Emma had her own apartment, Regina came over sometimes and they cooked together. Well, Emma was mostly in charge of the salad or something else that couldn’t go wrong or end up catching fire but still. Emma had initially persuaded Regina by telling her she really needed to learn some basic recipes to keep their son somewhat healthy on the days he stayed with her. But since nothing ever really went according to plan, things had evolved to regular dinners where they left out the cooking lesson part and just prepared food together because it was fun. This way, they could both spend more time with their son and it was a perfect excuse to spend time together as well. Not that they needed excuses anymore.  
  
An hour later, Henry sauntered into the kitchen pulled partially by the delicious smell of roast beef and partially by that nagging voice in his head telling him to apologize to his brunette mother. Emma notices him first, quickly making up an excuse about needing to change before dinner. This wasn’t her moment.  
  
“Mom?” Henry asked in a tentative voice.  
  
Regina turned off the faucet, slowly lowering the knife she was rinsing to the counter. She turned around to look at him. To his relief, he couldn’t detect any anger in her features. It told him to just say what he needed to.  
  
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean what I said. I was upset and I- I wasn’t thinking.”  
  
“You were right,” Regina said and Henry was about to deny it, but she held up a hand indicating she wasn’t finished. “But I wish you would talk to me. If you explained, if you let me, us, in, then perhaps we _could_ understand.”  
  
“I know,” Henry mumbled his eyes downcast. “It’s just that me being a loser isn’t really something I want to talk about.”  
  
“Oh Henry, you’re not a loser,” Regina said as she walked forward placing both his hands on his shoulders. She didn’t even need to bend down to do so anymore. He was growing so fast, too fast it seemed.  
  
“That’s right, kid,” Emma said a she walked back into the kitchen. Of course she had heard everything, she may have multiple rooms in her apartment but it was still pretty small and with the doors open she heard every word. Regina also noticed she still had the exact same outfit on. Not like she had expected anything else.  
  
“You can’t be,” Emma added as she came to a halt next to Regina, making a show of straightening her spine. “with such an awesome mother, there’s no way for you to be a loser.”  
  
“That’s right, dear.” Regina nodded. “And you also have Emma.”  
  
The corners of Henry’s mouth turned upwards as Emma faked being hurt by Regina’s words. And just like that, the tension in the room evaporated.   
  
They didn’t talk about school during dinner or the dishes afterwards but when Henry went to his room to do some more homework before bed, the topic came back up. They agreed that something needed to be done, but neither knew where to start. Not everyone fitted seamlessly into the hierarchy of a high school. Emma, of all people, knew all about that with her secondhand ill-fitted clothes and transferring schools so often she never grew out of being the new girl.  
  
As they talked about it they quickly found that neither one of them had any useful experience from their teenage years. Neither one of them had found a way to fit in back then. One never staying long enough to find her place, the other had been forced to stay in places that were all wrong. They did however eventually find where they fit in. Their place turned out to be a small town in Maine. As they talked about this, they quickly realized you didn’t need to change yourself to accommodate your surroundings. It really worked the other way around. So many people didn’t seem to get that. Emma saw plenty of kids coming and going for petty crimes at the sheriff’s station. Stealing make up or trespassing on a dare. All of them getting in trouble in the hopes of fitting in.   
  
It didn’t work. The only people who truly fitted in, were the ones who found a place they could be themselves and be celebrated for it. In Henry’s case, this wasn’t the gymnasium or the football field. And unfortunately, those were two of the very few options high school kids in Storybrooke seemed to have. And that needed to change.   



	2. Chapter 2

In the weeks following, things started to gradually get better. At first, they sat Henry down and talked to him excessively. Weighing options and even having him try a few things. Turned out he wasn’t as gifted at fencing as his grandfather and although he was fairly good at chess, it mostly just bored him. There had to be something he liked at that would allow him to connect with the students a little better. And there was. A few weeks later, as if it was meant to be, there was an opening on the editorial team of the school newspaper.   
  
Observant and creative, Henry felt right at home being a writer. He attended more school events, even if it was just so he could later write about them and he even made a few new friends. He wasn’t becoming anything even approaching popular, but he seemed to have found a satisfactory place to fit in on the social ladder.   
  
His mothers watched as he no longer came home grumbling. His scowl turned into something they even dared to call a smile. It was almost like he had aged backwards. He was more like his cheery old self than he had been for weeks and no one was happier about that than Emma and Regina.  
  
Along with Henry’s growing enthusiasm, the bond between Regina and Emma became stronger. They grew closer and at some point, Emma had stopped denying the fact that she might have feelings for the other woman. What was the point of lying to herself anyway? It wasn’t like she was going to act on them. She simply couldn’t risk it. This thing they had going, the three of them and the rest of her family was too good to risk. Too good to even have. She wasn’t going to put any of that one the line for a simple crush.   
  
Except that it wasn’t just a crush, was it? A small voice in her head said. It didn’t feel like one anyway. The voice was right, but she couldn’t use this kind of commentary in her head. She had accepted her feelings and resigned to never act on them. Regina was too important to lose. Henry was too important to lose. Period. End of discussion.  


* * *

  
  
Emma had been so engrossed in her files, finally finding some quiet time and concentration to delve into the huge amounts of paperwork piling up on her desk, that she literally jumped when her phone rang, hitting her knee hard on the underside of her desk.  
  
“Sheriff Swan.”  
  
“Sheriff Swan, hi, it’s Principal O’Malley.”  
  
The man left a long pause, which Emma didn’t fill at first. She waited for him to continue, but it didn’t seem like he planned to before she said something. Like he was waiting for her to confirm that she knew him. And of course she did. He was one of the town’s most eligible bachelors. With his charming ways and the jazz band he played in, he made many woman swoon. Although a pretty responsible man, he was the kind of free spirit who wouldn’t be tied down easily too. It still kind of shocked Emma that this guy was principal of a high school. But so far so good. She never would’ve pegged herself for a Sheriff either. They had exchanged a few words before. Mostly with him trying to unsuccessfully sweep her off of her feet at some point, but he had never called her directly before. Whenever the school needed assistance for anything, it was never Thomas who called.   
  
With that said, she was a little surprised to have him on the line right now.  
  
“Uh, hey Thomas?” She didn’t mean for it to be a question but she was too confused to help it.  
  
“Sheriff, I would like you to come to the school.”  
  
“What happened? David is out on patrol, I can have him there in about ten minu-”  
  
“Not as the sheriff, Emma,” he interrupted. Skipping the formal titles all together now. “As Henry’s mother.”  
  
Panic. That was the first thing she felt when he asked her to come to the school. Something must’ve happened. She had never had to come to the school for Henry before. Something was wrong.  
  
“Is everything okay? Is he hurt?” She blurted out immediately.  
  
She heard him chuckle, and the delay in answer aggravated her. His ease, his relaxed confidence had always been a little over the top, but right now she really couldn’t take it. She should’ve seen his laughter as a good sign, and she would have if she hadn’t been freaking out a little.  
  
“O your son is fine, Emma. But you should see the other guy.” Then his voice changed to a more serious, businesslike tone as he went on. “I don’t want to give you any details over the phone, I think you should come down to the school so we can have a face to face conversation and to pick up Henry.”  
  
Emma exhaled heavily at the reassurance. She exhaled her panic, and then inhaled confusion. Henry had never gotten in trouble before. He had never even gotten any low grades let alone detention or worse. ‘You should see the other guy’? That’s only an expression people use when there had been a fight right? Had Henry been in a fight?  
  
She told him she would be on her way now the moment she hung up, she found herself with her phone in her hand dialing another number instead.   
  
“Regina,” She said as soon as the phone on the other end of the line was picked up and a greeting was voiced. “The school called me here at the station. Henry has apparen-“   
  
There was a weird crackling coming through the line and before Emma could even wonder about bad connection, Regina appeared in a cloud of purple smoke.  
  
Emma was so startled by the sudden appearance she toppled backwards out of her chair, hitting the ground hard. She blinked a few times, lowering the phone in a daze. Regina was still clutching her own phone too, her eyes wide in question and a hint of worry. Looking down at her in a perfect formfitting gray dress, Emma was glad she was already on the floor, because that outfit surely would’ve put her there.   
  
“What is it?”  
  
Right, Henry. Task at hand. Focus, Emma.  
  
“Well, I was going to tell you not to worry, but I’m guessing it’s a little late for that.” With a grunt, she pulled herself back to her feet. She brushed off her jeans and straightened her shirt.  
  
“Emma, what is it?” Regina pressed, emphasizing every word.  
  
“Henry has been in a fight,” Emma said, rubbing the back of her neck and then she added “I think.” Since Thomas didn’t exactly say he had been.  
  
“He has what?”  
  
Regina sounded exactly the way Emma had felt when O’Malley delivered the news. Shock. Disbelief. Confusion. All of it could’ve been heard in the three words the brunette just said.  
  
“Yeah,” Emma drawled. “I don’t know anything else either. I’m going over there to see what it’s all about. I was going to ask you to meet me there, but since you’re here now, you might as well get in my car.”  


* * *

  
  
When they reach O’Malley’s office fifteen minutes later, his secretary tells them to take a seat and wait for him to come and get them. When they walk around her desk towards the chairs they see their son, hunched forward in his chair. He had one hand wrapped in a dish towel. Regina takes the seat next to him while Emma crouches in front.  
  
“Henry,” Emma begins as he lifts his head to look at her. His red eyes and tear marks on his cheeks clearly show he’s been crying. “What happened?”  
  
Henry took a moment to look from her to his other mother and back, then he shrugged and said, “I punched Fergus.”  
  
The name Fergus sounded somewhat familiar. Wasn’t that one of the football players? Not that they went to games, but she thought she had seen his name in Henry’s articles a few times.   
  
“What happened to your hand?” Regina wanted to know.  
  
“I was holding a glass beaker when I did it,” Henry explained, watching shock edge across the brunette’s face. Her eyes darted from his down to his hand and back, inevitably thinking about what Fergus’s face must look like now and what her own son was hiding under that towel. “I wasn’t thinking. I forgot I was holding it.”  
  
“Now would be a good time to start telling us what happened, kid,” Emma pitched in.  
  
“He’s been on me since the beginning of school. I could take it at first. I don’t mind him making fun of me, I mean yeah it sucks but I was able to shrug that off. He crossed the line today. He was behind Nicolas and me in Chemistry. It was like this red color crept in front of my vision more and more with every word, every insult he threw at us and at some point I couldn’t see anymore and I snapped. I turned around and swung at him. He should’ve known better than to say that.”  
  
Henry didn’t even seem the slightest bit sorry for what happened. Maybe he was sorry for the way he had lost control, because he was raised better than that, but he wasn’t sorry for what happened to Fergus. Their son was not a violent kid. Regina had never heard of any other incident where he had gotten physical with anyone. What exactly had this boy said to make him go off like that? She was about to open her mouth and ask, but Emma beat her to it.  
  
“What did he say? What was different about this insult?”  
  
“He was making fun of me and Nicolas,” he offered as an explanation, hoping it might be enough. But really it was an explanation he’d already given, and saying it twice didn’t make it any less cryptic. After a beat of silence, where neither of his mothers seemed to understand he added, “for being a couple.”  
  
Another moment passed in silence as Emma and Regina processed his words. Stunned, they didn’t really know how to respond. Emma’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline. Well, this was new.   
  
Regina was the first to recover. She leaned forward and placed a hand on Henry’s knee. She locked eyes with him and said, “It’s okay. You can be with whomever you w-“  
  
“We’re not together!” Henry said loud enough to make the secretary look up from her computer. He didn’t care at this point. “He kept saying all these things about how we shouldn’t be gay because it was wrong. Because it was gross. He said there were girls who needed a man to love them and we were wasting our love on each other. A man should be with a woman and anything other than that was wrong and disgusting and twisted.”   
  
He was getting angry again just by recalling what Fergus had said to him. His cheeks were burning and his chest heaving. He clenched the hand that wasn’t wrapped up into a fist in his lap.  
  
“If it isn’t true,” Emma began tentatively. “Why couldn’t you just let it go?”  
  
“Because,” Henry said, almost full on yelling now. “I couldn’t just let him insult my moms!”  
  
“Excuse me?” Regina said while Emma just stared.  
  
“You two being in love! It’s not gross or wrong at all. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Asshole.”  
  
Emma opened and closed her mouth a few times, not really sure what to say to that. She should deny it, but she was too shocked to formulate any sort of response. Regina was at a loss of words herself. Henry had just assumed they were together? Just as the blonde opened her mouth to try and babble her way out of this, the door to the principal’s office opened and a man stepped out.   
  
He was tall and slightly muscular. His hair was somewhere between red and brown and he had a light stubble. Emma could admit he was kind of attractive looking, but the fact that he seemed to know it had always put her off.   
  
“Emma,” he smoothly greeted, stepping forward with an extended hand. After a short shake he turned and noticed Regina. “And Regina, it is so good to see you.”  
  
As he said it, his twinkling eyes swept over her. Was he seriously checking her out right now? Emma had seen him work his magic on women before but Regina was having none of it. He may be a smooth talker and he may make many of the mothers, and a few of the fathers, who crossed the threshold into his office, swoon with the way he carried himself but she was certainly not one of them. She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin and met his eyes as she corrected him. “Mayor Mills.”  
  
“As you wish,” he admitted easily. He stepped aside, extending his arm back towards his office. “Ladies first.”  
  
Henry stayed outside while his mothers went it. They were still a little stunned by Henry’s words as they shuffled into his office.  
  
“Have a seat, ladies, have a seat.” O’Malley himself slid onto his chair, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his desk. “So, quite the day today, huh?”  
  
“I suppose you could say that.” While Emma was still trying to get her mind to catch up, Regina had switched to her detached mayor-mode.   
  
“Well, I am glad you both could make it here this quickly. Let’s cut down to business, shall we? As a school with a zero-tolerance policy for violence, you can understand we can’t let this incident blow over without punishment. I will have to suspend your son for the rest of the day and tomorrow.”  
  
“What about the other boy?”  
  
“He’s doing alright. He has some shallow cuts on his face but nothing that won’t heal. Don’t you worry, he will be fit for the game tonight.”  
  
“That’s not what I meant,” Regina responded. She couldn’t care less about the game. This narrow-minded man really didn’t know anything about her priorities. “What sanctions does he face?”  
  
Her question seemed to catch him of guard. He eyed her incredulously for a moment as if he couldn’t comprehend where her question was coming from. He half expected her to tell him she was only joking but Regina just waited, staring him down. Emma could see his easy demeanor faltering under her gaze. He must not be used to people being so unimpressed by his obvious charm.  
  
“Are you saying he will get away with his homophobic remarks? I thought you said this school had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to violence? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe the school also has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying. Does that not apply to the school’s athletes or are you saying verbal abuse isn’t violence nor bullying?”  
  
“Miss Mills,” O’Malley chuckled nervously. “He was just kidding around and your son hit him in the face with a beaker those are hardly comparable.”  
  
“Kidding around? Words can cut deeper than glass, Mister O’Malley. You are suspending my son for defending human rights, while your precious star athlete will not receive any penalty?”  
  
“I think we are blowing things way out of proportion here.” He leaned back in his chair, creating a bit more distance between him and the brunette. His eyes shot to Emma, almost begging her to jump in. To come to his rescue. She was definitely not about to do that. Even if her thoughts weren’t too jumbled to speak, she wouldn’t tell Regina she was wrong when she wasn’t. When it became clear Emma wasn’t about to help him he went on. “I don’t think there needs to be any punishment for voicing a fairly normal opinion.”  
  
It was exactly the wrong thing to say. And exactly the right thing to get Emma to join the conversation.  
  
“Do you even hear yourself when you speak? Are you saying it’s perfectly normal to be a homophobe? If we’re really down to just matters of opinion then I think our son was simply voicing his opinion on the matter.”  
  
“Emma, he shattered a glass object in the face of one of his fellow classmates.”  
  
“Now who’s blowing things out of proportion? He was only swinging at him, the fact that he had a beaker in his hand was just an accident.”  
  
“The fact remains, a harmless student was attacked by your son.”  
  
“Harmless?” Regina sneered. “Are you saying it’s okay to bully people? That zero-tolerance policy must be easy to reinforce. You simply never have to. It is not even slightly okay to make fun of someone because of their sexuality, Mister O’Malley. That could be considered a hate crime.”  
  
“Fergus is simply reciting what he’s been taught. You have to understand he was raised with a traditional family view.”  
  
“Like you?” Emma countered. Her blood was starting to boil now, and judging by the way Regina was shooting daggers at him, she wasn’t the only one getting furious. How could this guy be defending Fergus on this?   
  
“I, uh, well,” O’Malley stuttered trying to find a way around the question. “You have to admit, it’s the normal point of view. You cannot blame the boy for that.”  
  
“Just because it’s common,” Regina replied surprisingly calm yet cold and hostile. “Doesn’t make it normal.”  
  
“What does it matter, really? Why don’t we round this up. From what I understood, the accusations against Henry weren’t true and it’s not like you two are… you know.”  
  
Round this up? Regina felt like yelling at him. She felt like telling him what an incompetent, feeble minded idiot he was. But she knew it would only make matters worse. If not for her, then for Henry. She looked over at Emma, who was flat out gaping at him like she couldn’t believe the words coming from his mouth.   
  
She looked down to locate Emma’s hands and then she reached for the nearest one. She slipped her fingers between the blonde’s and then looked back at the principal.  
  
“Would it be a problem if we were?”  
  
O’Malley’s eyes dropped to their linked hands, his eyes growing wide for a split second before his trademark smile crept back onto his face.   
  
He responded, but Emma didn’t hear him. Alarm bells were going off in her mind. Regina Mills was holding her hand. She should pull away but instead she felt herself clutching tighter. This wasn’t real. Why did it feel real? Don’t enjoy it, Emma. Do. Not. Enjoy. It. And then the brunette’s thumb was rubbing along hers as if it wasn’t just for show and it was all too much. Too much and too little, because it was just for show. It was just pretend to prove a point. Only Emma wasn’t really pretending and she couldn’t do much more than just hold on and try not to look too dumb folded.  
  
And just like that, they were standing up. Or more specifically, Regina was pulling her up. With her hand. The hand she was still holding.  
  
They said a stiff good bye and then turned and left the office. As soon as they heard the principal’s office door close, Regina let go of her and Emma immediately felt the loss.  
  
She wordlessly followed Regina and Henry outside to her car and got in. She vaguely heard Regina tell Henry something about talking about this tonight, but she was too caught up in the whirlwind of emotions currently wreaking havoc in her head to participate in the conversation.  
  
She drove them to the mansion on auto-pilot, where all of them got out. In the kitchen, Regina properly cleaned their son’s cuts and with a freshly bandaged hand he was sent to his room with his brunette mother on his heels.   
  
Emma stayed in the kitchen, staring out the window and not really seeing anything. Not hearing Regina return with Henry’s phone and laptop in her hands. They barely ever had to, but when they did sent Henry to his room as punishment, they made sure to take his electronics away. Otherwise, it would be just a regular day for him, holed up in his room.  
  
She may not have noticed her reentering the kitchen, but she definitely noticed the soft hand on her shoulder a moment later. The same exact hand that had been entwined with her own only an hour ago.   
  
“Kids fight,” Regina began. “It happens. He will be okay.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“That’s not what’s bothering you?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Then what’s going through your mind?”  
  
Emma closed her eyes, willing them to stay dry. She turned so she could look Regina in the eyes when she answered. “You shouldn’t have done that. You can’t.”  
  
“What do you mean?” She really had no idea, did she? She had no idea the effect she had on Emma. Emma had sworn never to mention it. Promised herself she wouldn’t mention it, but she never expected to be pulled into a fake relationship in front of her son’s principal.  
  
“You can’t just hold my hand like that.”  
  
“Why not?” Regina asked. “It didn’t mean anything.”  
  
“That’s exactly why!” Emma half-yelled, just in time remembering to keep her voice down in case Henry would overhear. “You can’t hold my hand like that and say it didn’t mean anything. Because it did mean something, Regina. To me. You can’t hold my hand and tell people we’re together just to prove a point or get some teenager weeks of detention, because then I can’t pretend I’m not in love with you.”  
  
A moment passed. Then another. Regina seemed to be looking for something. Seemed to search her eyes for the lie in them but she came up empty. And then she decided to throw caution to the wind.  
  
She surged forward, one hand clutching at the collar of Emma’s jacket, pulling her into her and the other arm found its way around the blonde’s neck. And then they were kissing. Like, actually kissing.   
  
It took Emma a moment to process what was happening. She had reflexively grabbed a hold of Regina’s hips to catch her and to steady herself, but now those hands encircled her waist like they were made to do it, meeting at the small of Regina’s back. Again, there was a moment where she thought maybe she was falling for a meaningless gesture once again but a moment later there were only sparks in her mind, a fire in her chest and stars in behind her closed eyelids as she got completely lost in the sensation.  
  
Too soon, they ran out of oxygen. Too soon they had to pull away. Too soon, reality crashed down on Emma once again.  
  
“What is happening?” She breathed, voicing the first thing that popped into her mind as the fog slowly cleared away.  
  
“Something that should’ve happened a long time ago,” Regina whispered back as she cupped Emma’s face in her hands.   
  
“What? It did?” Now this was a surprise. Was Regina telling her, this whole thing hadn’t just been occupying Emma’s head, but hers as well? This day was just so weird. Maybe she would wake up soon.  
  
“Remember when we talked to Henry about fitting in?”  
  
Emma nodded, reveling in the warmth radiation off of the body she was finally holding against her own.  
  
“I had been thinking about where I fitted in ever since. My puzzle piece never seemed to fit anywhere. I had been toying with the idea that maybe yours would be a match. And then when I held your hand today…” Regina let one of her hands slide down Emma’s neck, over her shoulder and down her arm to lace their fingers together once more. “They fit so perfectly, and things just clicked. I think I know why I never found my place to fit it. Because it was never a place at all. It was a person. I fit in next to you.”  
  
Emma, who has never been very good with words, leaned in again. Their lips connected almost seamlessly. They bodies molded together as if they were made to be joined. And maybe they were. Maybe Regina was right. Maybe the place their puzzle pieces fit was the spot next to each other.   
  
This was it.  
  
This is where they both fit in.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little story! 
> 
> Please tell me what you thought.


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